Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1544609
Grant Baylor looking smooth while taking the Overall Win Grant Baylor looking smooth while taking the Overall Win That's a tougher nut to crack, but Stew Baylor told the riders mee ng crowd, with 100% honesty, I might add, that he wanted feedback on the weekend, good, bad, or whatever. Stew is commi ed to making the series be er and is not afraid to try new things. He's also smart enough to know when something new just isn't working out, and he'll adjust accordingly. There's another two-day this fall in West Virginia, and I'm sure some things will get tweaked before then. The main point here is that Stew wants to know what the racers think, and he's a big enough man to take the heat if they're not happy. Aside from the "vaca on days" issue, the only true "con" I saw all weekend was the tremendous need for manpower. The Super Test is an issue all in its own, and I'll hit that in a minute, but take your normal race day labor needs and double them for a two-day. Some people can only work one day or the other, so you've got to double up on personnel for checkpoints, road crossings, sign-up, merchandise sales, etc. The check crew captain was probably pop- ping blood pressure pills all weekend, making sure he had enough folks to do the check-ins and check-outs. A challenge, but not insurmountable. From the racer's perspec ve, I think the two days were received fairly well. Sure, there's a fair number of B and C riders who like to be on a row with, or at least within a few rows of the pro and AA riders. You can learn a lot from following a fast rider, see their approaches, see their lines...un l you can't see their back fender for the rest of the test. Con- versely, there's probably a larger number of Bs and Cs who'd really rather not have to ride each test with a bunch of faster riders breathing down their neck and worrying about finding a place to pull over for a clean pass. I'm in the la er group now, but I know plenty of riders who purposely sign up on a pro row, so it's a double-edged sword for the me being. Spli ng the riders up between two days meant fewer rows each day. For the workers, it meant they got to close their checkpoint an hour or more sooner. For the riders, it meant not having to wait un l 10:43 to start Test 1 as row 103, and not loading for home with the sun se ng. Farm 14 had 60-some rows on Saturday and 30-some on Sunday. Sunday riders pulling in Saturday got to spectate the fast guys, get trail-condi on info from friends,